Paul Saxton, U.S. AFRICOM director of Outreach wrote:

On January 12, 2011, Samuel L. Kaplan, U.S. Ambassador to Morocco; Mr. Azzedine Farhane, Director of the Department of the United Nations and International Organizations at the Moroccan Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation; and Mr. Paul Saxton, Director for Outreach, U.S. Africa Command offered opening remarks to 30 participants from the United States and 12 African nations at the Near East South Asia (NESA) Center’s Northwest Africa Transnational Threats Seminar at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation in Rabat, Morroco.

Each stressed the importance of the discussion of strategies to counter transnational trafficking in humans, arms and narcotics. This is the first program supported by three of the five Department of Defense regional centers and U.S. Africa Command. The centers involved were the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies and NESA. The Moroccan government played a pivotal role in supporting this unique program.